Rep. Lummis doth object too much

Wyoming's brand-spanking-new Rep., Repub Cynthia Lummis, is wasting little time learning how to tow the party line, especially when it comes to the economic stimulus legislation. She voted against it twice -- joining the rest of her naysaying right-wing brethren and sistren. For eight years -- four terms -- Lummis's predecessor, Barbara Cubin -- never met a spending bill she didn't like. The Repubs ran up a huge deficit and now they've rediscovered their fiscal conservative roots.

Anyway, here are the parts of the stimulus bill that Rep. Lummis found objectionable:

1. $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts;
2. $2 billion for the Neighborhood Stabilization Fund, providing funds to organizations such as ACORN, which has been accused of practicing unlawful voter registration in recent elections;
3. $8 billion for a High Speed Passenger Rail Program, after the House did not include any funding for the program and the Senate included $2 billion, which will fund at least one project from Las Vegas to Los Angeles
4. $1 billion for a Prevention and Wellness Fund, which can be used for sexually transmitted disease education and prevention programs at the CDC
5. $500 million to replace a 30-year old computer system at the Social Security Administration
6. $500 million for a health professions training program -- funding which an earlier committee report said were allocated because, “a key component of attaining universal health care reform will be ensuring the supply of primary care providers.”

Let's take these one at a time.

1. The $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts stipulates that the funding goes for grants to activities and projects “which preserve jobs in the nonprofit arts sector threatened by declines in philanthropic and other support during the current economic downturn," with 40 percent of the amount going to state arts agencies and regional arts organizations (“in a manner similar to the agency’s current practice”) and the remainder going out in competitive grants from the NEA. Matching requirements are waived.

So, if 40 percent of that total equals $20 million. and it's divided equally among 62 state/territorial arts agencies and regionals, that would mean $322,000 for the Wyoming Arts Council, where I work. That means a lot of grants to arts councils and schools and libraries. Also, the other 60 percent of NEA funding will go out in grants to organizations in all states, including Wyoming. That's a nice infusion of capital in tough times. Not to mention the fact that arts orgs in the state could apply directly to the NEA.

In her press release, Lummis didn't have to mount any specific objection to arts funding. Her Repub clan knows that "NEA" is a code word for "the agency that funds pornographic art." So, in Lummis-speak, $50 mill to that outfit is a big waste of taxpayer money -- and a slap in the face to all good fundies.

2. ACORN. Remember how Sarah Palin objected to community organizers, notably anyone involved with ACORN. Registering voters? What kind of commie crap is that? So, all the right-wingers have to see is ACORN and they go bat-shit crazy.

3. Railroads. Not sure why Republicans hate mass transit so much. Americans are crazy about their passenger trains, especially new light-rail systems that are springing up everywhere, notably in the cities of the West, e.g. Denver and Phoenix. Trains settled the West and drove off the buffalo and the Indians. Since Wyoming Republicans hate wolves so much, you'd think they'd come up with a plan to build a train through Yellowstone. But a top-notch train system would be great for the country and help make us more energy efficient. A high-speed rail line along the heavily traveled I-15 corridor from L.A. to Las Vegas could save us millions of gallons of fuel a year. Oh, now I see. Rail systems mean energy savings. No need for foreign oil. Or Texas oil companies. That will never do.

4. Why would Rep. Lummis be against disease prevention? Again, we're dealing with those right-wing code words. "Sexually transmitted diseases." Only "those people" gets STDs, you know, the darker-skinned populations. And the licentious ones, those people with no morals and no means. Non-Christians. Non-Republicans.

5. Social Security Administration? Is that thing still around? I thought Dubya banished it?

6. Uh oh. "Universal health care." Those are fighting words to Republicans. Again, it's code. Universal health care equals single-payer system equals socialized medicine equals "We're no better than the Canadians." A program to train more primary care providers would lead to a ready supply of doctors for rural and underserved communities, something desperately needed in states such as Wyoming. You'd think that Wyoming's lone U.S. Rep. would support a program that would get doctors out into small communities where they're really needed.

Gosh, I could go on and on but it's getting late.

We deserve better representation than this.

Shocker! Barrasso/Enzi vote against Senate stimulus bill

No surprise here. Wyoming's two Republican senators -- Mike Enzi and John Barrasso -- both voted against the $838 billion economic stimulus package in the U.S. Senate.

The bill passed the Senate anyway, by a 61-37 margin, mostly along party lines. All the "no" votes were cast by Republicans. What a bunch of naysayers.

In an AP story, Barrasso said that the legislation is not a stimulus bill but is a spending bill. He says the bill does little in the way to create jobs now. Enzi ridiculed the bill, saying it spends a lot of money without knowing whether it will work.

Wonder what else Congress spent a lot of money on without knowing whether it would work? The Iraq War, to mention one. Jury still out on that one. No Republicans (except Nebraska's Chuck Hagel) and some Dems voted for war bills over and over again, with nothing to show for it.

And what about Bush's crackpot plan to cut taxes for the richest Americans? That cost the U.S. treasury $1.3 trillion. It led to the current crisis. And Enzi and Barrasso want more of the same?

I wish I had someone in the U.S. Senate that represented me.

I attempt to explain U.S. history

While I blog, my daughter Annie sits next to me doing her U.S. History homework. The topic tonight is World War I.

"Who -- or what's -- The Big Four?" she asks.

I reel off names of three of the allied countries in the war: England, France, U.S. Can't think of a fourth. Russia?

"No, Italy." She's looking at a list in the book, "The Americans: Reconstruction to the Twentieth Century." The Big Four were the allied powers who assembled at Versailles on 11/11/09 to screw the Germans which led to the economic collapse of Germany, which led to Hitler, Blitzkrieg, The Final Solution and all the rest.

"No Man's Land?" She searches her text, which is the size of the Unabridged Oxford English Dictionary. No wonder these kids have bad backs. Get them a couple good paperbacks about the war and toss out the text. I recommend "All Quiet on the Western Front," "Johnny Got His Gun," "The Good Soldier Svejk," and "Soldier of the Great War." Just pick two.

I Google "No Man's Land" and come up with some photos showing dead soldiers hung up on barbed wire. I tell her that No Man's Land was the hellish space between trenches where most of the dying took place.

"What kind of weapons were used?"

I see what she's doing. She knows I'm keen on history and knows, with little prompting, I will blurt out a very long and convoluted answer. "What kind of weapons do you think they had?" I ask.

"U-Boats."

Check.

"Tanks?"

They started out with horses, which were obsolete when the tanks appeared. Your great-grandfather's Iowa cavalry unit went to France with all their horses and never rode them into battle. Too dangerous, what with tanks and machine guns and barbed wire.

"Did the horses get hurt?"

This kid loves her animals. Not a kid anymore, 15 with a birthday in March. "I don't think the horses got anywhere near the front lines."

She nods, puts away her work sheet and closes the book. "I'm going to work out."

She heads to the basement treadmill, leaving me thinking about World War I. What a pointless slaughter that was. My grandfather was gassed and ended up spending a year in the hospital after the war. On the plus side, that's where he met my grandmother, an Army nurse. This union led to my father and then to me and, eventually, to my daughter.

High school history doesn't track the vagaries of people's lives -- just the big themes like weaponry, world leaders and treaties. Those books I mentioned earlier, that's where you get the individual stories that illuminate the big picture. Svejk just wants to make it through in one piece, but people keep trying to kill him. Those people tend to be on his own side, which also baffles American pilot Yossarian in "Catch-22."

As often happens, we have to leave the final word to the poets. Here's Wilfred Owen, who was killed a week before the Armistice: "My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity."

Praise the Darwin -- and put up a billboard

Darwin even looks a little God-like (in the Old Testament sense) on this billboard erected outside Grand Junction, Colo. Grand Junction was chosen, along with sites in Dayton, Tenn., and Dover, Pa., due to some anti-evolutionary nonsense perpetrated by these communities.

The Tennessee and Pennsylvania towns had landmark court cases about the teaching of evolution. In Grand Junction, the Freedom from Religion Foundation has complained to the Mesa County commissioners about denominational prayers in public meetings.

The foundation is made up of agnostics and atheists who fight government displays of religion.

I tend toward agnostic. I'd like to see one of these billboards in Wyoming, although don't want to suffer through any fundie creationist hoo-ha to get one.

"Red Dawn" Wolverines strike again

Some of you may recall this "Cold War" scare film that was set in Colorado after the Soviet invasion.

Thanks to crooks and liars.

Marriage defenseless in wake of bill defeat

House Joint Resolution 17, the so-called "Defense of Marriage" resolution, was defeated on a 35-25 vote after impassioned testimony from lawmakers.

"I look upon this state as the Equality State and I urge you to maintain that status as the Equality State," said Rep. Patrick Goggles, D-Ethete. Rep. Goggles was a delegate at last summer's Democratic National Convention in Denver.

But you can't kill a bill in our lopsided legislature without some Republicans going along for the ride -- sometimes even leading the charge.

Rep. Roy Cohee of Casper, an opponent of the bill, was mentioned in a story this evening on Wyoming Public Radio.

Rep. Roy Cohee says despite claims by fringe groups that the constitutional amendment is needed, he says he believes that the average citizen disagrees and feels that the public thinks they have much more important work to do.

Sen. Enzi: "Thanks for all the pizza"

Fed up with all the crazy talk about a trillion-dollar stimulus package, Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi and GOP Senate colleagues took time out today to accept delivery of dozens of pizzas delivered to the Capitol steps. The Senators were grateful to GOP PAC Americans for Posterity (motto: "No Stimulus Without Pepperoni") for its generosity in times of great stress. "Dig in, fellas," urged Enzi. And they did, with great relish.

Republicans: Crazy or loony?

After the past two weeks, I have to wonder if bipartisanship exists. Are Republicans merely being the opposition party? Or are they crazy?

Quote from John Cole's Balloon Juice at www.balloon-juice.com:

I really don't understand how bipartisanship is ever going to work when one of the parties is insane. Imagine trying to negotiate an agreement on dinner plans with your date, and you suggest Italian and she states her preference would be a meal of tire rims and anthrax. If you can figure out a way to split the difference there and find a meal you will both enjoy, you can probably figure out how bipartisanship is going to work the next few years.

Art teachers conduct civics lesson in legislative action

Some of my colleagues in the world of arts education have jumped into the legislative battles with both feet. HB0218 is designed to revise the Hathaway Scholarhips to include arts courses. The Hathaways are awarded to high school seniors attending the state's only four-year university or one of its community colleges.

I posted about this bill on Jan. 28. Here's the latest update from wyomingarts:

We had a very exciting day at the Legislature yesterday! The House Education committee was unanimous in their acceptance of the proposal to change HB0218 to reflect Fine and Performing Arts, and unanimous in their acceptance of the bill. Four teachers presented in support of the bill: Cindy Schmid, Cheyenne; Amy Simpson, Cheyenne; Sheila McHattie, Casper; and Kelly Bembry-Hennings, Cheyenne. Many other teachers, and some administrators, also attended to show their support.

The House Education committee made a number of supportive comments about this bill, and several representatives commented that they had received a lot of email on the topic. The committee was joined by the chair of the Senate Education committee (Senator Coe), and also Senator Dockstader. Senator Dockstader, who is married to an art teacher in Star Valley, was kind enough to give the presenting teachers advice on the process, and help us all by talking to a number of legislators. Superintendent McBride was also there and provided some comments on the bill.

This bill still has a number of hurdles to overcome before it is law, but it is well on its way.

What’s next?

The bill is waiting in line on the docket to be presented to the Committee of the Whole (the House). The Majority Floor Leader sets that schedule. The House Floor Majority Leader is Edward Buchanan (Torrington). The bill must be read by the end of the day on Monday, February 9 in order to continue through the process.

If it does get read by end of day Monday, February 9, it will then be voted upon by the Committee of the Whole (House). If it passes, it goes to second reading. It must be read and voted on by the end of the day on Tuesday February 10 to continue to its third reading. It must have its third reading and voted on by the end of the day on Wednesday, February 11. If it passes, it moves on to the Senate Education Committee. If it doesn’t pass, it is dead.

All House Bills must have achieved third reading by Wednesday, February 11, or they are dead.

These are the stages that must occur between now and the time the HB0218 is presented to the Senate side. So, still a ways to go before it becomes law.

You too can be an ozone monitor

Ozone alert:

Pinedale residents could wake up with unhealthy levels of ozone in the air this morning and should take appropriate precautions, state officials say.

Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality officials predicted weather and other conditions will be ideal for high ozone levels in the Upper Green River Basin.

The DEQ ozone advisory -- the first ozone alert of the winter season -- was announced Tuesday on the agency's Web site.

Ozone study alert:

University of Wyoming researchers are seeking volunteers in Sublette County to assist with an air quality monitoring study.

The six-month project will record ozone levels around Pinedale and at various sites in the Upper Green River Basin. It should provide researchers with much-needed data about the distribution of ozone in the basin.

A mobile air quality monitoring lab has been moved to Pinedale to measure ozone levels with state-of-the-art equipment, according to researchers.

Officials said passive ozone monitors are also being placed throughout the basin to map ozone distribution, and human exposure to ozone will be recorded by the volunteers as part of the project. Volunteers in the study will wear a clip-on, passive ozone sampler, which will record how much ozone he or she comes into contact with during an eight-hour time period.

Both of these stories by Jeff Gearino were in today's Casper Star-Tribune.

Stimulating debate needed on stimulus bill

GOP Senators issued a long list of things on Monday they hate about Obama’s stimulus bill:

• $2 billion earmark to re-start FutureGen, a near-zero emissions coal power plant in Illinois.
• A $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film.
• $650 million for the digital television converter box coupon program.
• $88 million for the Coast Guard to design a new polar icebreaker (arctic ship).
• $448 million for constructing the Department of Homeland Security headquarters.
• $248 million for furniture at the new Homeland Security headquarters.
• $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees.
• $400 million for the Centers for Disease Control to screen and prevent STD's.
• $1.4 billion for rural waste disposal programs.
• $125 million for the Washington sewer system.
• $150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities.
• $1 billion for the 2010 Census, which has a projected cost overrun of $3 billion.
• $75 million for "smoking cessation activities."
• $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges.
• $75 million for salaries of employees at the FBI.
• $25 million for tribal alcohol and substance abuse reduction.
• $500 million for flood reduction projects on the Mississippi River.
• $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas.
• $6 billion to turn federal buildings into "green" buildings.
• $500 million for state and local fire stations.
• $650 million for wildland fire management on forest service lands.
• $1.2 billion for "youth activities," including youth summer job programs.
• $88 million for renovating the headquarters of the Public Health Service.
• $412 million for CDC buildings and property.
• $500 million for building and repairing National Institutes of Health facilities in Maryland.
• $160 million for "paid volunteers" at the Corporation for National and Community Service.
• $5.5 million for "energy efficiency initiatives" at the Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration.
• $850 million for Amtrak.
• $100 million for reducing the hazard of lead-based paint.
• $75 million to construct a "security training" facility for State Department Security officers when they can be trained at existing facilities of other agencies.
• $110 million to the Farm Service Agency to upgrade computer systems.
• $200 million to lease of alternative energy vehicles for use on military installations.

Some of these could stimulate the economy. Some are just wayward bills that never found a home. Some are just silly -- TV converter boxes? The total here is about $20 billion, give or take a few million (I’m too lazy to add them up).

That leaves about $800 billion in spending in the current stimulus bill. Are the GOPers O.K. with all that remains? What about the $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts? Why isn’t that first on the GOP hit list? It’s possible that Republican Senators finally understand that a healthy economy needs the stimulus of the arts. There was a time, back in the 1990s during Newt Gingrich’s Contract on America, that the NEA was under withering fire from the Religious Right and its political handmaiden, the GOP. Congress cut the NEA budget in half, but couldn’t kill it. The agency’s budget rose during Dubya’s two terms.

It’s also possible that the disgruntled Republican senators are listening to some of its senior members who’ve become part of the Senate Arts Caucus, people like Wyoming’s Mike Enzi. Although he’s pretty much a party line guy, Enzi has long supported the arts in his home town of Gillette and throughout Wyoming. He could be talking some sense into his colleagues. It’s possible.

It’s funny to see Republicans getting religion about spending. They didn’t bat and eye when they authorized the war in Iraq and ended up spending (so far) $600 billion in taxpayer funds. They sunk hundreds of billions more into Defense Department appropriations (separate from the war funding) and dried up the treasury with their generous tax cuts for the richest Americans. Now they see the light. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition – to Halliburton! But let's not spend a penny on youth programs or energy efficiency or disease control.

Palin the future brains of the GOP?

Rasmussen Reports features its latest political poll:

One thing for sure: Republicans and Democrats don’t agree on the future direction of the Republican Party.

Coming off a shellacking at the polls in November, the plurality of GOP voters (43%) say their party has been too moderate over the past eight years, and 55% think it should become more like Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in the future, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Just 24% think failed presidential candidate John McCain is the best future model for the party, and 10% are undecided.

Only 17% of Republican voters say their party has been too conservative, and 30% say its actions and positions have been about right, with nine percent (9%) not sure.

Nearly two-thirds of Democrats (64%), however, say the Republican Party has been too conservative, and 42% think it should look to McCain for the future. Twelve percent (12%) of Democratic voters see Palin as a future role model, and 40% aren’t sure what’s best for their rivals.

Wow. Republicans think their party has been too moderate the past eight years? That's scary. Scarier still is The Return of Sarah Palin, Airborne Slayer of Wolves. The Republicans need to rename themselves the Lamebrain Party. First Bush, and then the possibility of Prez Palin? Let's hope that Barack Obama sets us on a course that honors intelligence and competence over stupid.

Sen. McCaskill reads riot act to "idiots"

Watch Claire McCaskill (D-MO) take apart the idiot financiers who got us into this mess: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt90KUwCCoE

This one is for my college chum Bob in Missouri.

Middle class revolutionaries on the march

I've been a card-carrying member of America's middle class all my life. I suppose my "card" is that wrinkled old original Social Security card I carry in my wallet. All of us have one of these, from the homeless man crashing at the local shelter to crazy ol' rich guy Bernie Madoff. But most of us are middle class, like it or not.

There was a time that we artsy types wanted to distance ourselves from suburbia. "Middle class" was a putdown among '50s beats and '60s hippies (and hippie wannabes). Odd thing is, the most vocal critics tended to be offspring of the upper classes rather than the sons of daughters of carpenters and insurance salesmen. Middle-class kids like me were raised to strive for better lives that our parents'. Most of us seemed to want that, too, although life has a way of playing tricks on your aspirations.

My father was an accountant and my mother, a nurse. My father was the first college graduate in his family, courtesy of the G.I. Bill. My mother's nurse's training was paid for by the U.S. Navy, although World War II ended before she could serve in the military. My parents' first house came through a no-down-payment, low-interest loan through the V.A. It was in Aurora, Colo., Denver's burgeoning eastern suburb. We lived just down the street from Fitzsimons Army Medical Center where Ike recovered from one of his heart attacks. Pres. Ike was married to Mamie, a middle-class girl from Denver.

My parents and millions like them made up the middle class. Their ungrateful kids wanted something else, something better, something....who the hell knows. Most of us claimed territory in our parents' socio-economic cadre, whether we wanted to or not. In the 1980s -- that "Me Decade" when TV's "Thirty-something" was all the rage -- we didn't grasp the fact that forces energized by the so-called Reagan Revolution were on a search-and-destroy mission. Target: me and my neighbors. Those forces took steroids during the Dubya Administration.

But now the Reagan/Bush/Bush tide is ebbing.

On Friday, Pres. Obama signed an executive order forming a Working Families Middle Class Task Force. Point man is Veep Joe Biden. Here's what he had to say:

"America’s middle class is hurting. Trillions of dollars in home equity and retirement savings and college savings are gone. And every day, more and more Americans are losing their jobs. President Obama and I are determined to change this. Quite simply, a strong middle class equals a strong America. We can’t have one without the other. This Task Force will be an important vehicle to assess new and existing policies across the board and determine if they are helping or hurting the middle class. It is our charge to get the middle class – the backbone of this country – up and running again."

Who would have thought there would come a time when being middle class was revolutionary?

The task force's first meeting will be in Philadelphia Feb. 27. I would have preferred a place closer to Middle America. Aurora, Colo., for instance. Or possibly Cheyenne, Wyo., or Omaha or Wichita. I formally invite the task force to Cheyenne. The Veep can stay in my guest room.

One thing that's encouraging -- you can submit your ideas to the task force here.

Contact your legislators about including the arts in Hathaway options

A bill modifying the requirements for Wyoming's Hathaway Scholarship was recently introduced by Wyoming Rep. Elaine Harvey from Lovell. The bill would allow a student to substitute two years of music education in grades 9-12 instead of foreign languages. The bill does specify "music" and not the larger category of "fine and performing arts."

The bill has been assigned the number HB0218 and is entitled Hathaway Success Curriculum. The bill (as of 1/31) can be read here. It has been referred to the House Education Committee. It is scheduled to be heard on Monday, Feb. 2. For updates on the status of the bill, go to: http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2009/Bills.htm.

The bill could be modified several times. It can be modified in committee, on the floor of the House, or -- if passed -- by the Senate committee or on the floor of the Senate.

Music teachers Cindy Schmid and Amy Simpson met with Rep. Elaine Harvey and Rep. Joe Barbuto last week. They were able to help them organize talking points for the bill, but did not feel they were successful in making the case to modify "music" to "fine and performing arts."

People in arts education have divided opinions about the bill. On one hand, it would be a great thing that students have options when it comes to scholarship-sanctioned courses. The bill would be a great entry point into the Hathaway program. Once legislators open the door to one art form, others are sure to follow later. The no-cost bill might be seen favorably by legislators wary of big ticket items during tough economic times.

On the other hand, once music is approved as an alternative, perhaps legislators might feel they've done their final bit of Hathaway modifying and close the door forever. That's a danger, although hard times don't last forever -- and neither does a seat in the state legislature. Educators in visual arts and theatre are concerned about this possibility.

Those who want to see the broader category of "fine and performing arts" in the Hathaway legislation suggest these talking points:

1) Wyoming does not have stand-alone standards in music; all of the arts are together under Fine and Performing Arts. Currently, students must gain proficiency in the arts in order to graduate with two of our three diplomas. Keeping it consistent with the current system is simpler for administration purposes, and for districts to advise students.

2) Not all students are good at music. If the purpose is to create successful students, providing as many avenues as possible for success is important. Changing the requirement to the Fine and Performing Arts allows students to select from music, art, dance or theatre.

3) All of the arts provide important benefits to students. A variety of studies has shown correlations between participation in the arts and the likelihood a student will stay in school. All of them develop higher order thinking and creative problem solving skills, which are in high demand in the workforce today.

4) People who participate in the arts are more likely to vote, volunteer and generally participate in public life.

These last two, of course, would also be a danger to Republican hegemony in Wyoming. Another great reason to throw the arts into the mix.

The members of the House Education committee are: Del McOmie (Fremont); Bob Brechtel (Natrona); Cathy Connolly (Albany); Bernadine Craft (Sweetwater); Ross Diercks (Niobrara/Weston/Converse/Goshen); Allan Jaggi (Uinta/Sweetwater); Thomas Lubnau (Campbell); Robert McKim (Lincoln); Matt Teeters (Goshen/Platte). Contact them through legisweb.state.wy.us/

Lummis says no to U.S. economic recovery

Here's Wyoming Rep. Cynthia Lummis's statement explaining her vote against the stimulus package designed to rescue the U.S. from the recession:

Following her vote against the $816 billion economic stimulus package, U.S.Representative Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., issued this statement:

“The economy is in a downturn, and is in need of help – we are all feeling that reality. However, I believe this economic stimulus package will not deliver the shot in the arm we are looking for. We cannot borrow and spend our way back to economic prosperity.

“The stimulus package provides enough spending to give every man, woman and child in America $2,700, but will cost each and every household an additional $6,700 in debt.

“Huge amounts of government spending have never been an effective tool for economic recovery. It has been tried here and around the world before, and it has always been found wanting.

“This bill, meant to stimulate our economy, has among other crazy things, money for the National Endowment for the Arts, the 2010 census, and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. This is not stimulus – it is a bridge to bankruptcy – and it is not how tax dollars should be spent.

“That is why I have cosponsored alternative measures that cut taxes and give individuals and small business back the money they’ve earned. This is a true stimulus for the economy.“

The bill I support, the ‘Economic Recovery and Middle-Class Relief Act of 2009’ would cut income taxes 5 percent across the board, and permanently lower the capital gains, as well as repeal the alternative minimum tax.

“It would also include a 1 percent across-the-board budget cut for everything but defense and veterans – a first step in the right direction of true fiscal discipline. “While there are a variety of programs in the President’s stimulus package that I could support on their own merits, I hope to consider them in next year’s budget, and not in a stimulus free-for-all, like the one being considered in Congress now.”

Republicans brought us this economic crisis with their tax cuts for the rich and an unnecessary crusade in Iraq. That war alone has cost the U.S. almost $600 billion (see http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home). That could pay for the stimulus package that Lummis so blithely dismisses.

It's also good to know that Lummis is on record against funding for the arts. That's a continuation of her predecessor's ignorant anti-arts stances. Gives us something to use against her when she runs again in 2010.

Also, this release refers to an $816 billion stimulus package. The actual amount is $819 billion. That's a difference of $3 billion. And Lummis once was Wyoming's treasurer? Makes you wonder.

Guess which big square state is hopelessly Republican? (Hint: It's not Colorado)

A recent Gallup Poll shows Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and Alaska as hopelessly Republican, with Nebraska as a runner-up due to one of its electoral votes going to Obama.

Wyoming was not the most Repub of states. Utah gets that honor.

But here's a weird thing. Oklahoma leans Democratic, yet all 77 of its counties voted for McCain. Of Wyoming's 23 counties, all but two (Albany and Teton) went to McCain. So which is the most regressive, politics-wise?

Artists and their communities

During his campaign, Pres. Obama talked about the importance of the arts, calling for a young “artist corps” to work in low-income schools and neighborhoods; affordable health care and tax benefits for artists; and efforts at cultural diplomacy, such as sending artist-ambassadors to other countries.

And according to a story in the Sunday New York Times:

Arts groups, meanwhile, are urging federal departments like Transportation or Labor to factor culture into their financing. A transportation enhancement program, for example, could pay artists for related public artworks; through the Labor Department displaced arts professionals could receive new training to stay in the work force. “Every one of these places is a vehicle through which the money is going to flow, and we want to make sure the arts is part of it,” said Bob Lynch, director of Americans for the Arts.

But what arts executives are most eager for, they say, is additional direct financing and a president who sends the message that art is important. The country’s 100,000 nonprofit arts groups employ some six million people and contribute $167 billion to the economy annually, Mr. Lynch said. “I don’t think of this as a bailout for the arts,” he added. “It’s an economic investment in the arts.”

Bill Ivey is director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University and a former NEA chairman. “There has never been an administration that looked at the cultural agencies as a partner in advancing big, overarching policy objectives,” he said in an interview. “That’s a real unfulfilled
opportunity and I think this administration is poised to do a better job.”

Arts groups said that they would seek to drive home the idea that culture is an economic engine. “Arts jobs are jobs,” said Marc A. Scorca, president and chief executive of Opera America. “We see opera companies cutting health care, administrative staff — these people are taxpayers and rent payers and mortgage payers, just like every other employee.”

“Arts jobs are jobs.” I like that quote. Six million people work in the arts and contribute billions to the economy. We could create more jobs in the arts, and that would be a start. What we really need are artists living and working in their communities. That means artists throwing pots in the garage or writing poetry in the garret -- and being actively involved in their communities. That’s Civics 101 stuff, those high school precepts that many of us have forgotten. It means engaging your neighbors on the arts. It also means finding ways to incorporate arts in the days to day doings of your town. Most arts groups in Wyoming were started by artists who learned budgeting and organizing and grant-writing skills via OJT. Most were -- and still are -- volunteers.

Last week, my son and I visited the Roosevelt Row Artists’ District in Phoenix. It’s been 13-some years since I was in downtown Phoenix. More buildings have gone up downtown, and the city is now serviced by a slick new light-rail system. The Arizona Arts Commission at Fifth Avenue and Roosevelt is a few blocks away from a light-rail stop. The AAC offices are in an historic building and used to be surrounded by derelict buildings and a few small arts organizations. People now actually live and work in the area.

East along Roosevelt is the artists’ district. We visited its Third Friday open house. Artists live and work out of old bungalows that a decade ago were abandoned wrecks and crack houses. There was a steady stream of people investigating the shops and galleries. The big crowds come on First Friday events, when vendors line the streets and local bands perform.

Greg Esser directs the Roosevelt Row district and was instrumental in getting it off the ground. In the beginning, he and his fellow artists spent a lot of time dodging crack dealers and deciphering arcane zoning regulations. These days they’re attending city meetings to find out how big budget cuts will affect the district. They also took time out to fight the city’s plan to build a football stadium right on top of their heads. The stadium was eventually built west of the city in Glendale. It was in the news last weekend as the Cardinals played for the NFC championship. Lots of Philadelphia fans in town for the big game, dressed in their greenish jerseys. I saw them crowding into the light rail and jostling each other in downtown bars. Economic development.

Cities love sports money almost as much as they like building new stadiums for fat-cat owners. A whale of a stadium can bring economic development to your neighborhood for the eight NFL home games and two NFL home pre-season games. There are college football games, too, and sometimes mega-concerts. But on most nights, the desert wind is whistling through the empty corporate skyboxes. Some of them will be empty next season, abandoned by bereft tycoons who laid off employees while investing in skyboxes and gilded umbrella stands.

The big irony in all this? Many of those same tycoons supported symphonies and art museums and other big-box arts entities. How will those places fare during this recession? The first thing I heard on my rental car radio in Phoenix was the governor's office announcing a $1.6 billion budget shortfall. The AAC had to slash its programs for individual artists -- for starters.

Once a city's residential and business district is established, it not only has activity 24/7, but it generates energy and tax income. It also keeps down crime. Sure, that tattooed guy with the nose rings and purple hair may look like someone you don’t want your daughter to bring home for dinner. But if you ask, you’ll discover he’s a working artist, a guy who renovated his old home on the Row, pays a mortgage, works by day in his studio and as a barista at night. He’s making your city a better place.

That goes for all towns and cities, whatever the size. I’ll have more to say about that in later posts.

Make It Happen. Again.

President Obama said this in his inaugural address: "The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified."

Alliance of Federal, State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) has released a new video highlighting the lessons to be learned from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s response to the Great Depression. To see the video, go to “Make America Happen. It links FDR’s New Deal with President-elect Barack Obama’s calls for bold action and civic engagement in response to our present crisis.

I'm a member of the Wyoming Public Employees Association (WPEA)/Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1990. AFSCME does some great things on behalf of government workers.

States can benefit from Obama arts surge

I’ve been an arts worker for almost 18 years, both at the Wyoming Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. "Arts worker" has a nicer ring than "arts administrator" or the one I actually carry around on my business cards, "Individual Artists Program Specialist." I work to ensure that Wyoming artists and arts organizations survive and thrive. I have an affinity for artists because I’m a working writer with a stake in the health of the arts scene. We writers are spending almost as much time unlocking the secrets of "the new publishing paradigm" as we are writing (more about that in future posts).

The U.S. now has a new political paradigm. I worked to elect Pres. Obama not only because he was the best candidate. He also was one of the few with an arts platform. His inaugural celebration featured poetry and lots of music. He had arts advisers during the campaign and, after Nov. 4, a transition team devoted to arts and culture. The Democratic leadership in Congress has included a $50 million boost in National Endowment for the Arts funding in its gigantic stimulus package.

But that’s not just a boost in the NEA budget. Here’s a description from a press release:

On Jan. 15, the U.S. House Democratic leadership released details of an $825 billion economic stimulus package with $275 billion in tax breaks and $550 billion in spending. The proposal includes a $50 million allocation for the National Endowment for the Arts, with the stipulation that 40 percent of such funding be distributed through state and regional arts agencies, the balance to go out in direct grants from the NEA. The proposal further stipulates that all funds must be awarded by September 30, 2010, using existing grant-making procedures.

The specifics of the proposal announced by the Democratic leaders include an unusual statement of accountability attached to the measure, referred to as "an historic level of transparency." Among the safeguards, the measure states: "Public notification of funding must include a description of the investment funded, the purpose, the total cost and why the activity should be funded with recovery dollars. Governors, mayors or others making funding decisions must personally certify that the investment has been fully vetted and is an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars. This will also be placed on the recovery website....There are no earmarks in this package."

So, $20 million of stimulus funding for the arts will go through existing state and local arts agencies’ programs, including those at the Wyoming Arts Council. That’s a real relief, since the NEA has spent the past eight years inventing new programs that we have to find resources for. And the WAC always has more demand for funds that it can fulfill. The stimulus plan will be at least a short-term boost. It goes to a vote in the U.S. House as early as Wednesday. You may want to urge your U.S. rep to support the stimulus package. Wyoming has a new one, Republican Cynthia Lummis. It's time to test her mettle. You can e-mail her here; or phone her at 202-225-2311; or write her at this address.

But what’s the long-term outlook for the arts? An elitist tag has been hung on arts organizations, especially the large institutions such as symphonies and art museums and theatre companies. Artists haven’t helped, spending more time holed up in the academy than being an active member of their communities. Maybe that’s about to shift.

(More arts musings tomorrow)

Heart Mountain Center takes shape

Whenever I'm in Park County, I try to stop at the site along Hwy. 14A of the Heart Mountain Internment Camp from World War II. Thousands of Japanese-Americans from the West Coast were interned here following FDR's presidential order. The best time to stop is on a windy and cold January day. You get the full picture that way, what it might have been like to arrive in northwest Wyoming after being forcibly removed from your home in balmy southern California. I don't have to imagine the cold. I do have to imagine the despair and sense of abandonment they felt. The camp held up to 11,000 people from 1942-45. I look up at the camp's namesake, Heart Mountain, and try to see the heart at its summit. A geologist told me that the mountain looked more like a heart until a landslide carried away part of the summit.

At long last, the Heart Mountain site is getting an interpretive center. Ruffin Prevost reports in the Billings Gazette that the center's first phase is nearing completion, "incorporating a design that evokes two barracks from the original camp (see artist's rendering above).

And with only a handful of original buildings and a lone chimney still standing on the site, backers of the new center hope to re-create for visitors the gritty details of camp life.

"This is history - it's a big deal. I'm just so proud and pumped about being part of it, and it's going to mean so much to a lot of people," said Allen Rapacz, president of Schutz Foss Architects, with offices in Billings and Gillette, Wyo. Construction began in August and should be complete sometime next month, he said, adding that initial funding has covered building the exterior of the center's main structure, with the interior and an additional adjacent section to be completed later.

"We're trying to replicate what it looked like then, but using modern materials," Rapacz said. Sections of the center's interior will re-create barracks rooms, showing the spartan and primitive conditions under which internees lived, he said. "We will actually re-create exactly what that was like, with wood siding on the inside, and just one single light bulb in the room," Rapacz said, adding that former internees and their families will provide some original furnishings.

Dave Reetz, head of the Heart Mountain Foundation, said that one section of the center will be named in honor of former internee and Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta and retired Sen. Alan K. Simpson, Reetz said.

"The Mineta/Simpson Friendship Hall will recognize their unique and long-standing relationship, which has come to symbolize the enduring bond between the former internees and their Wyoming friends," Reetz said. Simpson and Mineta met nearly 65 years ago during a Boy Scout gathering near Heart Mountain, and eventually served together in the U.S. Congress.

I've heard both Simpson and Mineta speak on the subject. It's fascinating that a white boy from Cody and a "Jap" kid from the internment camp could meet and become friends -- and then serve together in Congress. Simpson's a Wyoming Republican (and an outspoken one at that) and pretty much the party's senior statesman these days. His sense of moderation fell out of favor and was negated by other Wyoming Republicans who served recently in D.C. You know who I'm talking about.

The Gazette article didn't say when the center will be open to visitors. The exterior will be completed in February, with the interior to be finished when more money's available. Funding thus far has come from state and federal governments, along with corporate and foundation money and individual contributions.

Wyoming's heady mix of "homegrown and imported storytelling"

Jenny Shank at New West writes in her 1/21/09 Western Book Roundup about one litblog's attempt to sum up the literary achievements of each state. Omnivoracious editors Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey are doing a state-by-state roundup of good books. They also tie it into politics, by noting the electoral votes of each state (Wyoming has three) and then accompanying each post with a bookish version of the state's quarter. The Wyoming quarter has been redesigned with a photo of Jack Schaefer. Lest you don't know Schaefer's claim to fame, read this Omnivoracious post by Tom Nissley:

It seems somehow fitting to have on our Wyoming quarter a man who never lived there. Jack Schaefer, author of Shane and over a dozen more Westerns, was an Oberlin grad and an Eastern newspaperman who fell in love with the Old West but only moved out to New Mexico later in life (and, as far as I can tell, hadn't even set foot in Wyoming when he wrote Shane). Wyoming, as a literary state, seems to exist mostly as an idea in the head of writers from the East: the best-known classic Wyoming book, The Virginian, was written by a friend of Theodore Roosevelt who prepped at St. Paul's and had two Harvard degrees, while the best-known modern Wyoming book (or at least story), "Brokeback Mountain," is by a woman who lived in Vermont for decades and moved out to Wyoming a few years before her story first appeared. Unlike Colorado to the south, which Ben Kunkel pointed out has been strangely ignored by novelists except as a site for Armageddon, Wyoming does stand for something in the American literary imagination, but neither has it developed the fertile combination of homegrown and imported storytelling of Montana, to the north.

Here's my three (or, rather, four) for Wyoming:

Shane by Jack Schaefer: Last year, twenty-three years after the Western Writers of America chose Shane as the greatest Western novel of all time, they chose George Stevens's 1953 adaptation as the greatest Western movie of all time too. I must say I would have liked to have seen how it would have turned out with Schaefer's own pick for his dark leading character, George Raft, instead of Alan Ladd.
The Virginian by Owen Wister: In an earlier vote, the WWA members chose The Virginian as the greatest Western novel ever. It certainly is the one that started it all.
Close Range by Annie Proulx: Subverting the Western, or expanding it? Long before
Jake and Heath first rode up into the Rockies, "Brokeback Mountain," when I ran across it in The New Yorker, knocked me out like few others I've ever read there. This is the first of three collections of "Wyoming stories" from her so far.
Where Rivers Change Direction by Mark Spragg: I snuck in a fourth here because I was so happy to find a promising book by someone born and bred in the state. (Yes, I know, I could have chosen Lynne Cheney instead.) Spragg's written two novels since, but his debut, a memoir of growing up on a dude ranch near Yellowstone (where no doubt he met many Easterners who had read Owen Wister), is the one that has brought the most passionate responses, at least on our site.

I can already hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth by Wyoming writers. Schaefer's "Shane" is universally admired, and Mark Spragg (shown in photo, ready to be placed on the Wyoming coin) has tons of fans all over the country. Most of us see Owen Wister as a fair writer in the school of Old West Fantasy. Wister's old fishing pal, Ernest Hemingway, better represents Wyoming. Our only claims to Hemingway are his fishing trips and the fact that one of his many weddings took place in the Cheyenne train depot.

Annie Proulx is a great writer with a crusty personality. The now-retired director of Wyoming's state parks (and inveterate reader) once told me that he admired Proulx's writing but wished she had written about Nebraska instead of Wyoming. Half-skinned steers and talking tractors and mothers bent on infanticide are not the stuff of tourist brochures.

Proulx, for her part, said that all of her stories in "Close Range" had their genesis in real events documented in newspaper clippings she unearthed as she went about her usual dogged research. She also wrote all of her books, including the award-winning "The Shipping News," in Wyoming, although she didn't move here full-time until the mid-1990s. She recently told the L.A. Times that she's moving away.

The less said about Lynne Cheney the better. She is a Casper, Wyoming, native, but her books are more the fevered ramblings of a doctrinaire Republican that actual U.S. history.

Nissley's list is a bit stingy. Wyoming may not have the literary cachet of our Montana neighbors, and we don't boast the number of apocalyptic (and post-apocalyptic) novels set in Colorado, but we can hold our own when it comes to books. By the way, Philip K. Dick's "The Man in the High Castle" does have scenes set in Colorado. But the man himself lives in Wyoming. Dick grew up on Colorado's eastern prairie.

As a writer, and one who works with writers at my day job, I offer my own list.

Alyson Hagy of Laramie is a great short story writer and I'm reading her new novel, "Snow, Ashes." She has an upcoming book of stories set in Wyoming. She grew up in Virginia.

Any novel by Tim Sandlin of Jackson. Tim has been called a writer of comic novels, which could be seen a pigeonholing but I view as a high compliment. Life is easy, comedy hard. Tim is originally from Oklahoma.

Jon Billman moved away from Wyoming. But his W.W. Norton collection of stories, "When We Were Wolves," is terrific. He's originally from South Dakota, I think.

There's a Wyoming cadre of mystery writers that includes Cheyenne's C.J. Box (Wyoming native), Craig Johnson of Ucross and the writing team of Mike and Kathy Gear of Thermopolis. The Gears write geological mysteries and historical novels based on their anthopological research.

International adventurer Mark Jenkins of Laramie has a collection of his Outside Magazine columns in the book, "The Hard Way."

My favorite book set in the state goes back to the 1970s. It's "Little America" by California writer Rob Swigart. Kooky.

Alexandra Fuller of Wilson has two stunning non-fiction books set in her native Zimbabwe (called Rhodesia when she was growing up there) and the most recent, "The Legend of Colton H. Bryant," set in the southwest Wyoming oil patch.

And while we're discussing Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" (see Colorado entry), I must note that there's almost a chapter's worth of Wyoming in the book.

Don't forget Gretel Ehrlich's "The Solace of Open Spaces" and Teresa Jordan's memoir, "Riding the White Horse Home." Gretel's from California but moved to Wyoming, where she was struck twice by lightning and returned to California to recuperate. She's now back in Wyoming. Teresa grew up on a family ranch near Cheyenne.

Speaking of memoirs, you can get any better than Jim Galvin's "The Meadow." Galvin's family ranch straddled the WY-CO border. He's best known as a poet, and teaches at the University of Iowa creative writing program.

A notable book of poems: "Beyond Heart Mountain" by Lee Ann Roripaugh, a Laramie native. The book was published by Viking-Penguin and won the National Poetry Series award. The poems are told from the personae of Japanese-Americans interned at the WWII Heart Mountain Camp near Cody. Lee Ann's mother is Japanese and her father is the Wyoming Poet Laureate Emeritus, Bob Roripaugh (see photo below).

That's enough for now. Don't want to overload my readers. In Wyoming, we too are omnivores when it comes to appreciating good writing.

Here's a gaggle of four Wyoming poets addressing the crowd at the Wyoming Book Festival in September 2007 in Cheyenne. Shown (left to right) are Bob Roripaugh, Wyoming Poet Laureate Emeritus, Harvey Hix and Craig Arnold, both from Laramie and profs in the UW creative writing program, and David Romtvedt, Wyoming Poet Laureate and author of many books, including the most recent, "Some Church," from Graywolf.

Other possible Inauguration poems

It's possible that ceremonial poetry has to be bad poetry. How can you write something that encompasses the hopes and dreams of millions of people? Poets rely on small things, on fleeting images and emotions. All that can be lost during a reading in front of the massive U.S. Capitol to 1.8 people shivering in the cold.

So many other poems would have been better than the one Elizabeth Alexander penned for the Inauguration. Voice in Wartime offers some examples at http://curricula.voicesinwartime.org/Home/EducationPackets/InauguralAddressesandPresidentialPoetry/PresidentialPoetry/tabid/527/Default.aspx.
The site features previous U.S. Inaugural poems. But the better offerings are ones written by living poets on the occasion of Barack Obama's Inauguration. These poets didn't have to present their work in front of millions. Yusef Kumanyakaa's long single-stanza poem is too convoluted and the poet's voice too mellow to make it effective. Gary Soto writes a short poem. Soto would have been a great choice to perform on Jan. 20. Also Bob Holman, the poet behind the Nuyorican Poetry Cafe in NYC and a participant at the Taos Poetry Bouts.

Here's Soto's poem, "Making the News," written for the occasion:

It's not right to burn newsprint,
The stink of ink in the air,
But I have to crumple at least a few pages
And strike a match in the fireplace--
The bad years go up in a question mark of smoke.
Or should I make confetti from the sports section,
Or shape a dunce hat from the business page—
I, the investor in rubber bands
That shot me in the foot.
Or should I cut out coupons--

Two cans of soup for the price of one.
Or, for a laugh, should I spread open the comics
On the kitchen table and string a macaroni necklace,
The playground craft I could master.
I choose smoke and fire,
The sting in my eyes on this January day,
And poke a wreath of newspaper
Until it crackles with a steady fire.
Let's air out the square and oval rooms.
Let's wave at a dog frolicking on the lawn.
Let's hear children and the tap of rain on a tulip.
Let's welcome the new resident to our house,
His handshake strong from the clasp of so many.

Obama crowds impressive from space

From GeoEye

A poem for Obama's Inauguration

Elizabeth Alexander's Inauguration poem:

Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others’ eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.

A farmer considers the changing sky; A teacher says,“Take out your pencils. Begin.”

We encounter each other in words, Words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; Words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, “I need to see what’s on the other side; I know there’s something better down the road.”

We need to find a place where we are safe; We walk into that which we cannot yet see. Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign; The figuring it out at kitchen tables.

Some live by “Love thy neighbor as thy self.”

Others by first do no harm, or take no more than you need.

What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance. In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp — praise song for walking forward in that light.

Wyoming BLM gets "renewables" office

This is an interesting story by the Associated Press:

The Bureau of Land Management has authorized the establishment of four special offices to expedite and accelerate the development of renewable energy resources on public land. One of those offices is to be located in Wyoming. The other offices are planned for Arizona, Nevada and California. Outgoing Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said in a statement last week that the primary job of the four new renewables offices is "to expedite development of wind, solar, biomass and geothermal resources on public lands." He also mentioned the development of electrical transmission facilities. The renewables offices are to be staffed by BLM employees working in a variety of natural resource specialties, and receive staff support from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service experts and other agencies within the Interior Department.

That's great. Even outgoing Secretary of the Interior Dick Kempthorne from Idaho realizes that we are in a new era. Let's hope this carries over to the new Interior Secretary, Colorado's Ken Salazar, whose appointment was confirmed today.

Marching for Martin 2009

"Bring Back the WPA" sign in the background. Extra credit for those of you who know what WPA means and what bearing it has on the present crisis.

Tucson MLK march from University of Arizona campus to Reid Park.

President Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law in November 1983 and the first official Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday was observed on the third Monday of January 1986.

At the time, only 27 states and Washington, D.C., honored the holiday. Most famously, all three Arizona House Republicans including current Senator and former presidential candidate John McCain, voted against the bill in '83. Arizona didn't vote to recognize the holiday until 1992. It wasn't the only state openly contemptuous of federal law. In 2000, 17 years after the law's official passage and the same year it pulled the Confederate flag down from its statehouse dome, South Carolina became the last state to sign a bill recognizing Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a paid holiday.

Kevin and friends at Tucson MLK Day march

Peaceful coexistence of football and the arts

Arizona was flush with victory when the NFL Cardinals pulled off a win over the Philadelphia Eagles. Arizona was never supposed to get this far, so we have to give Kurt Warner & Company a little credit for hanging in there. I'm a Denver Broncos fan, so what do I know? One radio report said that the Cardinals hadn't hosted a home playoff game since 1947 when the team was in Chicago. All those years in Saint Louis and the Cardinals never had a hometown playoff game? I may have to look up that fact on The Google.

Tucsonians didn't seem too electrified by the win, from what I could see. Maybe they're too far from the epicenter of activity in Glendale, which is west of Phoenix and about 120 miles or so from here. At one point, the Cardinals planned to build the new stadium in a so-called blighted area north of downtown. Living within the blight at the time was a coterie of creative types building the city's first artist district. That's the Roosevelt Row district that my son and I visited on Friday and Saturday. It still has a way to go before it's thriving all the time and not just during weekends, but that day will come. Imagine that the district could have been buried under the crushing weight of stadium skyboxes leased by tycoons who were quickly losing their dough in bad investments and asking the gubment for more, please sir, more.

I'll take the art.

If you want to talk economic development, the arts beat sports in most U.S. cities. A study in Denver a few years ago showed that the arts contribute more money to the metro economy than sports. And Denver is one sports-crazy town. As in Denver, Phoenix boasts the big three professional sports franchises: Arizona Diamondbacks (MLB), Cardinals (NFL) and Suns (NBA). Denver has the added draw of the NHL Avalanche. I don't know if there's an NHL team in the Valley of the Sun.

On Saturday, Kevin and I rode the new Light Rail from the Heard Museum to Roosevelt Row. The trains were jammed with people. They (the trains not the passengers) were quiet, clean and fast. Inexpensive, too. Nobody checked our tickets but we were warned over the P.A. that the transit police could stop us at any time and ask for our passes. If none was forthcoming, the transit cops could throw us off the train, just like they do in old Buster Keaton silents.

Tomorrow's the Martin Luther King, Jr., Day March at the University of Arizona, followed by an MLK Day Festival in Reid Park. Best way to spend my last full day in Arizona.

Pause to think about wonders of universe

In this morning's Arizona Daily Star, I'm reading about the International Year of Astronomy. During the past couple decades, new telescopes have shown us amazing images of the universe. One of the best shows on TV is "The Universe" on the History Channel. It showcases some amazing images and imagines life on other planets through animation. But once the shows are aired, they may already need updating. Things are happening that fast.

The International Astronomical Union has declared 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy. This is in honor of Galileo who, 400 years ago, spied craters through the moon through the world's first telescope. He also proposed the unthinkable: that the earth revolves around the sun, not vice versa. The Vatican accused him of heresy for such crimes.

Now, a short 400 years later, we can view nebulae and signs of black holes. Astronomers are tracking possible habitable planets in other systems. All kinds of new telescope projects are underway around (and out of) the world.

I'll leave you with this quote, which I'm going to try to say daily. It's from IAU President Catherine Cesarsky, a French astrophysicist:

"In 2009, we would like everybody on Earth to think at least once about the wonders of the universe."

Amen

From the land of sun and snowbirds

After Nov. 4, I thought about attending the Obama Inauguration in D.C. It's historic, no quibbling about that. It's an opportunity to join with thousands of maybe millions of like-minded citizens to celebrate our election efforts -- and hope for the future.

But back in the early fall, I arranged a trip to Arizona that combined business with pleasure. Also a chance to get out of Wyoming in mid-winter. I arranged the trip to accommodate others, and forgot about possible big happenings in D.C.

But there are more of us "not" going to the inauguration than those attending. We plan to be remote participants, volunteering for worthy causes on Martin Luther King, Jr., Day and watching Tuesday's festivities on airport TVs, which always seem to be tuned into Fox News (conspiracy?). I wonder, is Fox even covering the event? It's possible the network may run highlights of all the things it got wrong during the presidential campaign. Or maybe a special Ultimate Fighting Championship Death Match pitting Ann Coulter against Rush Limbaugh. If I know Ann's fighting skills, Rush will be hurting big time after that one. He'll really need those prescription painkillers.

So I may miss the Jan. 20 ceremonies. But I'll watch them later on the web. On Monday, my son and I will volunteer for the cause in Tucson. I've already written about USAservice and some of the orgs that seek help on that day -- and throughout the year.

All in all, a great time to be an American.

Where the artists are in Phoenix

My son Kevin poses in front of graffiti art that adorns the rear of the HoodRide shop, 918 N. 5th St., in the Roosevelt Row Artist District in downtown Phoenix. The combination custom bicycle shop and silk-screen printing company's exterior was painted by a roving band of Denver graffiti artists. While in Phoenix on a business trip, I visited the district's shops during its Third Friday Night event. According to a description on the Roosevelt Row web site, HoodRide is nightly from 6 p.m.-2 a.m. and offers "music and art performances with a focus on underground, low brow and street art. On premise screen printing and eclectic Bodega store."

Feed Wyoming 2009 this weekend

On this Martin Luther King, Jr./Barack Obama Inaugural Weekend, we focus our attention on hunger. Wyoming Food Bank of the Rockies sent out this press release about Feed Wyoming 2009:

The Wyoming Food Bank of the Rockies announced a statewide fund-campaign to procure food for the hungry in Wyoming. Feed WYOMING 2009 was inspired by the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King and in response to President-elect Obama’s call to citizens to serve others in their communities. The collaborative effort will take place January 17, 18th, 19th and 20th as a part of a National Day of Service.

Feed Wyoming 2009 is a non-partisan, non-denominational campaign. Any money raised will go directly to the purchase of food for people in need in the regions where the dollars were raised. The USDA estimates the cost for a family of four to eat healthfully for one day is approximately $17.50. With the help of the Wyoming Food Bank of the Rockies, a meal for a hungry family of four can be delivered for as little as one dollar.

Citizens are asked to consider helping in the following ways:

Ø To place a collection box at their place of business on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
Ø To ask their members, parishioners or constituents to consider a small one-time contribution. (Feed Wyoming is suggesting the cost that one might spend for one day’s groceries.)
Ø To create an email postcard asking friends to donate online: http://www.foodbankrockies.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Donate_Funds (don’t forget to designate your donation to the Wyoming Food Bank!)
Ø To create a link on their home page.
Ø To inspire a group to host a fund-drive in a public place.
Ø To invent another way to help raise resources!

All contributions will be directed to the Wyoming Food Bank of the Rockies who will in turn purchase food for the more than 200 food banks and pantries across the state. All contributions to WFBR are tax-deductible.

“If each of us as citizens does a little, our collective impact will be immense” said Marguerite Meyer, Director of Wyoming Food Bank of the Rockies. “This is a wonderful way of reflecting our commitment to those in need at a dire time.”

Feed WYOMING 2009 Community Partners and January 20th, 2009 statewide food/fund drop locations:
THERMOPOLIS: NOWCAP 317 So. 6th St. (307) 864-5544
CASPER: Casper Chamber of Commerce 500 No. Center St. (307) 234-5311
CHEYENNE: Needs, Inc. 900 Central Ave. (307) 632-4132
GILLETTE: Council of Community Services 114 #4-J Rd. (307) 686-2730
ROCK SPRINGS: Sweetwater County Food Bank 90 Center St (307) 307-382-7332
SHERIDAN: Sheridan Senior Center 211 Smith St. (307) 382-7332 ALL WEEKEND

For more information about Feed WYOMING 2009 contact Marguerite Meyer at the Wyoming Food Bank of the Rockies: 307.265.2172, 877.265.2172 or (307) 258.2908

Wyoming legislators confront immigration surge of same-sex married couples

The Know-Nothings are back to their old tricks for the 2009 Wyoming Legislative session.

This from the AP’s Ben Neary:

Some Wyoming lawmakers want to amend the state constitution to specify that Wyoming won't recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states, while opponents say they'll fight to defeat the measure for the second time in two years. Two-thirds of lawmakers would have to approve of the gay-marriage measure to put the proposed amendment before the voters. If approved, it would specify that only marriages between one man and one woman would be considered legal and valid in Wyoming.

I wrote about the ridiculousness of this bill during the 2007 session (see my March 7, 2007 post). That bill was opposed by equality-minded Democrats in the Equality State. But since Dems make up only .00005367 percent of the Legislature, we needed Republicans to kill the bill. Rep. Dan Zwonitzer was one of them. House Rules Committee member Rep. Tom Lubnau of Gillette took Zwonitzer’s side, acknowledging the Cheyenne legislator's speech before voting against the measure. The committee voted 7-6 to kill the bill, with House Speaker Roy Cohee, R-Casper, casting the tie-breaking vote. Zwonitzer couldn't vote against the bill because he's not on the committee. Other Republicans opposed the 2007 bill:

Rep. Pat Childers, R-Cody, said Monday that he would oppose the proposed constitutional amendment, just as he opposed the failed 2007 legislation that would have barred Wyoming from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states. He said he believes it would discriminate against people on the basis of their sexual orientation.

He said it's not the state's place to take a position on same-sex marriages. He said he believes that religious beliefs are behind the effort to change Wyoming law."I am never going to begrudge religious beliefs," Childers said. "But what they're doing is forcing their religious beliefs into the legal system. And I'm a firm believer in the separation of church and state."

Wyoming already has a law in place that says only marriages between a man and a woman may be conducted in the state. However, the state is currently bound to recognize marriages performed in other states, some of which allow same-sex marriages and civil unions.

Sen. Curt Meier, R-LaGrange, one of the bill's sponsors. He’s being lobbied by a new group called WyWatch Family Institute (which lists a Carpenter, Wyo., post office box in its contact information), describes itself as a "group of Judeo-Christian families who have a goal to preserve traditional family values in the great state of Wyoming." Which Colorado Springs-based group of fundie wingnuts is advising WWFI? You get three guesses, and the first two don’t count.

Focus on the Family. Plus the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based fundie legal group.

Outside agitators. Ain’t it always the case.

For more info on this group, go to http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/groups/wywatch-family-institute

Wyoming Equality will oppose the legislation. Spokesman Bob Spencer said he believes it will be harder to defeat the proposal this year than it was two years ago. "I think it just means that there's been a general movement toward more accepting, and therefore I think it makes our legislators, who are quite conservative, more defensive," he said.

Upcoming events for Laramie Co. Dems

Nicole Novotny, secretary of the LarCoDems, sends this info:

The next meeting of the Laramie County Democratic Party will host a legislative panel discussion. The meeting is Tuesday, Jan. 27, 7 p.m., at the Plains Hotel in downtown Cheyenne.

Also, please mark your calendars for a legislative reception to be hosted by the The Bell Family. This reception will take place on Friday, Jan. 30, 6 p.m. Tickets to attend this event will be $10 and the reception will be held at 7419 Daniel Court.

If you have questions, please call 307-631-7641.

Keep up pressure on the Wyoming Legislature for mental health bills

Thanks to Rep. Keith Gingery for this quick reply of my e-mail from Jan. 10 (see text of my e-mail below):

Dear Michael:

The Children’s Mental Health Waiver has taken a lot of work to finally get it off the ground and it is great to hear that it is being used by your family. The idea originated back in 2005 when we had parents testifying about the need to have a waiver. It took some strong arguing, but we were able to get it passed in either 2006 or 2007 (I can’t remember), and then it took a lot of work from the dedicated employees at the State Department of Health who figured out how to implement the program. It took a lot longer than I thought it should have to get the program operating and it had a few bugs ( too much paperwork and overly burdensome reporting requirements), but after incessant harassing on mine and other’s parts, we got it operating. I, too, was excited to see that the Mental Health Parity act passed in the bailout bill. We had tried that bill two years in a row here at the state level, but with no success. I think the Federal parity law will really help many Wyoming families.

We still have a long ways to go to get our mental health system working the way I want it to, but with stories like yours, it inspires me and other legislators like Rep. Millin, to redouble our efforts. The only thing I ask of you is to keep up the pressure on me and my fellow legislators to make the system even better.

State Representative Keith Gingery – Jackson Hole
Co-Chair, Select Committee on Mental Health and Substance Abuse

New book a celebration of the Red Desert

Red Desert: History of a Place, edited by Annie Proulx with photos by Martin Stupich, was released in December by the University of Texas Press in Austin.

The book had its genesis at an exhibition of Stupich’s Red Desert photos at the University of Wyoming Art Museum. The exhibit culminated in the Art Museum’s Red Desert Symposium in fall 2007. It was one of the best and most enlightening events I’ve attended in my 18 years in Wyoming.

Here’s an excerpt from Annie’s introduction:

It is our hope that this book will encourage naturalists, historians, graduate students, and Wyoming residents to venture into the Red Desert and discover for themselves the microhabitats, curiosities, and beauty of what remains in this little-known place, that they will observe for themselves the new roads and attendant dust storms, notice the biomass of halogeton, Russian thistle, cheatgrass, and other invasive weeds along those roads that come with soil disturbance. It is easy to blame all the changes in the Red Desert on energy extraction work, but that is the narrow view. There are countless Red Deserts in this world. Jack States touched the larger problem when he said, "Undeniably much of the pristine Red Desert ecosystem is imperiled not only by resource hungry corporations fueled by a resource hungry populace (that includes sanctimonious environmentalists), but also by inexorable global warming and extinction of species. To me the issues we face in the Red Desert are not that different from any other aspect of global environmental crisis spawned by a burgeoning human population."

"Red Desert: History of a Place," ISBN: 978-0-292-71420-5$50.00, hardcover with dust jacket 10 x 8 in.; 412 pp., 72 color illus. in section; 5 b&w illus., 9 maps, 8 tables 33% website discount of $33.50 at http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/excerpts/exprored.html

Just another January Sunday in The Hole

Nature has a way of taking your breath away. Sometimes, webcams can come close to what a professional photog can do with the Tetons. This from Jackson Hole webcams, Spring Creek Ranch site, just a few minutes ago. Get updates at http://www.jacksonholenet.com/webcams/spring_creek_ranch.php.

Hummingbirdminds professes some envy for the Jackson Hole scenery, yet is happy that he doesn't have to pay those housing prices -- or endure Dick Cheney as a neighbor.

Hummingbirdminds can't help but remember something a poet from the Big Horns once told him: "Too bad you live in the ugly part of the state."

Brownie: "Feets don't fail me now!"

Sometimes life dishes up some ironies that you have to share.

Colorado Media Matters blog reports that former FEMA Director Michael Brown (a.k.a. "Brownie") was one of the residents evacuated from a Boulder County wildfire in Colorado this past week. The CMM web site reports that Brownie’s role in previous disasters was overlooked when he was interviewed on KOA radio.

On the January 8 broadcast of Colorado's Morning News on Newsradio 850 KOA, co-anchors Steffan Tubbs and April Zesbaugh interviewed Michael Brown, the former head of the Department of Homeland Security's Division for Emergency Preparedness and Response -- previously the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) -- about his evacuation due to a major wildfire in Boulder County. Neither news anchor mentioned Brown's leadership role in the federal government's much-maligned response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005.

As The Washington Post noted in a January 8 online article:

Former FEMA Administrator Michael Brown, a.k.a. "Brownie" was among approximately 11,000 residents of Boulder, Colo. evacuated yesterday amid raging wildfires that have scorched at least 1,000 acres. After his eagerly anticipated resignation in Sept. 2005, the poster boy for the Bush administration's botched response to Hurricane Katrina moved back to the Boulder area, where he once served as legal counsel to the Arabian Horse Association and now operates a disaster consulting business.

You can read sections of the KOA transcript, and find other meaty insights on the Front Range media scene, at http://colorado.mediamatters.org/items/200901080002.

It's a cold windy day in Wyoming, but...

I'm a long way from Gainesville, but still get to celebrate the Gators' win Thursday night against Oklahoma.

Head to Estes Park for Jan. 17 Earth Fest

Janice Mason in the Estes Park Trail Gazette on Jan. 9 writes about the second annual Estes Earth Fest taking place on Saturday, Jan. 17, at the YMCA of the Rockies' Willome Center.

For those of you unfamiliar with the area, Estes Park is known as the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. When you drop into town on a summer Saturday, Estes Park may be the last place you think of as "green." Traffic is backed up for blocks, with cars and SUVs and RVs spewing clouds of exhaust into the mountain air. While downtown features creekside paths with a walkway and park, the town's shops are eerily similar to the those in Myrtle Beach and Branson, Mo. T-shirts, ice cream, burger joints, etc. It's not bad, but not exactly picturesque. But you have to go through Estes to get to RMNP, at least from the Front Range side of the Rocky Mountains. RMNP is one of our family's favorite camping and hiking spots. It's only a couple hours away from Cheyenne, the closest national park. It's worth a half-hour traffic jam in Estes to reach our destination.

But some changes are afoot, green-wise. Estes Park Light and Power is now accepting reservation requests for rebates on the installation of small wind turbines and photovoltaic generators. They'll be promoting the program at the Earth Fest.

Eagle Rock School staff and students have been working for months to recreate the success of last year’s Earth Fest held at the Estes Park High School. John Guffey, service-learning instructional specialist at Eagle Rock, leads the coordination of the festival.

“My sense of Estes Park is that we have a responsibility,” said Guffey. “I believe that it’s a beautiful one that we haven’t acknowledged. It’s been here for a long time, but we just think that we can milk the cow until we dry it out. In fact, we need to change how we relate with tourists and how we relate with the Park, to be a real connecting point. So we don’t just bring people in but that we give out the message.”

General admission tickets for the Earth Fest are $5 for adults 18 and over, $2.50 for students, and children under 8 enter free. The dinner will be by separate ticket: $10 for adults 18 and over, and $5 for youth ages 6 to 17. Advance dinner tickets are $8 for adults and $4 for youth ages 6 to 17.

YMCA of the Rockies Estes Park Center is located at 2515 Tunnel Road 2515, off of Highway CO-66.

FMI: John Guffey at 586-7115, jguffey@eaglerockschool.org, or visit www.eaglerockschool.org.

Two of the more interesting Earth Fest speakers are:

David Wann is an author, filmmaker and speaker about sustainable design and sustainable lifestyles. His most recent book, “Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle,” is a sequel to the best-selling book he coauthored, “Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic,” which has been translated in nine languages, including Chinese.

Jim Merkel is the author of “Radical Simplicity: Small Footprints on a Finite Earth” and directs the Global Living Project that consults with campuses and municipalities and offers workshops and lectures. Originally a military engineer, Merkel’s projects included energy demand management, design of military systems and foreign military sales. The Exxon Valdez disaster and the invasion of Iraq prompted him to devote his life to sustainability and world peace. He founded the Global Living Project (GLP) and initiated the GLP Summer Institute where teams of researchers attempted to live on an equitable portion of the biosphere.

Dear Wyoming Reps: Don't waiver on mental health legislation

Here's the text of a letter I e-mailed to Rep. Keith Gingery, R-Jackson, supporting his stance on increased funding for mental health care and substance abuse treatment. I copied it to my representative, Lori Millin, D-Cheyenne, in the hopes that they can work together and keep Wyoming from backsliding on this issue. While the Legislature commences Tuesday, there's still time to contact your rep on this issue. For background info, see my previous posts on this issue.

Here's the letter:

Dear Rep. Gingery:

Thank you for your outspoken stance on increasing support for mental health and substance abuse programs in Wyoming.

I speak as a parent whose son Kevin spent a year in a drug treatment center 2,000 miles away because there was no place to send him in Wyoming. He was 17 at the time, and now is 23 with six years of sobriety in A.A. He goes to school in Arizona.

Our daughter Annie just finished a five-month stay at Wyoming Behavioral Institute in Casper. She was being treated for bipolar disorder. Before WBI, she spent six months at Mountain Crest Hospital in Fort Collins, Colo. Treatment costs were very high, and we would not have been able to afford it with my State of Wyoming health insurance. The Great West plan paid for approximately six weeks of in-patient mental health care. It's possible that the Mental Health Parity Legislation that passed Congress late in 2008 will provide some relief to families with mental health care challenges.

How did we afford our daughter's treatment? The Children's Mental Health Waiver funded by Medicaid through the Wyoming Department of Health. It also helps pay for an after-care program. It took some research and a bit of paperwork to get into this program, but it was well worth it.

Let's keep funding these programs. And find ways to keep our kids closer to home when they need treatment.

Thanks for all you do on behalf of Wyoming families.

Sincerely,
Michael Shay, Cheyenne

P.S.: I'm forwarding a copy of this e-mail to my state representative, Lori Millin, who's been very supportive of health-care legislation.